jackassjim

Affirmative

Something tells me I'm getting the short end of the stick here :roll: I do come from the Great White North though, so the Michigan winter doesn't scare me too much. Plus, it can be quite pretty too:

My 2 (CDN) $ is on April 23th for the date on which the first doctoral SSHRC doctoral will land in a mailbox.

You find my excitement puzzling? Great choice plisar. You could not go wrong with either of your options, but this is quite something...

!!!

I like E. Reinhardt's work in IPE (maybe he's not a superstar though...). Recently he seems to be everywhere with co-authored papers, and I heard he just placed one of his students at Michigan.

Good for you Coach. I heard from someone on the OSU visit that you were a lot of fun. Best of luck at Rochester!

Friend of mine called, and the only thing they would say was "later in April"

Interestingly, I was told something VERY similar by someone from my department. It was a while ago though, so I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with the actual result of the competition. I'm pretty sure they have to do some internal ranking and recommendations for the bigger awards. Even if we did not get asked to apply for those (separate application I believe), it might be that we were nominated or something. That might be good for the regular competition.

Yes we should. I'm waiting for the PhD one right now, but when I got my MA SSHRC, the letter was the place I learned about it. People from my department only started congratulating me when they saw my name on the big list of names/research projects that is published every year.

Whichever position helps you gain experience in the area where you want to work later on. Plus, all the usual considerations (salary, hours, etc.)

Yes, that is exactly what they told me initially. The whole point of the thread was to try to get more than this.

UPDATE: For future generations, here is the result: Negotiations were successful. All schools contacted offered to let me top-up the value of their stipend using my external funds. Offers ranged from 2K$ to Full amount. The trick was to present that as a costless way for them to compete (I was lucky enough to have other offers to use as leverage). In other words, thepoorstockinger was right!

Rochester has a very strong constructivist faculty

Sorry. I had misunderstood your post. Thanks for clarifying

She was not affiliated to a university, so she did not really "make it to the national level". She applied directly to SSHRC, not through a school. It still means they are evaluating files. But I admit it might be an exceptional case.

The type of experience they look for is not the same. For the most competitive programs, they like to see that you have RESEARCH experience (writing a thesis, working for a prof or research organization, etc.).

My understanding was that you don't normally decline the SSHRC to use your school's money instead. Rather, the school would reduce your stipend up to the point where the money you get is equal to their original offer. For example, if the stipend is 22K and your SSHRC 20K, they'll tell you to take the SSHRC and will only give you 2K of their own money. Of course, they also reduce whatever work obligations there were attached to the package (less TA/RAships). People get upgraded from the 20K to the 35K when candidates decline the latter. This is particularly likely to happen because you can't take the 35K one outside Canada. For instance, I have accepted an offer of admission to a US university for the fall. If I get the big one, I will have to decline it, and SSHRC will give me the 20K instead. Another candidate will then get bumped up. I think this must be the main mechanism that allows people to move up in the list. I don't think you can make the same type of reasoning for M.A. waitlist.

Rejection letter was for the PhD

About getting a job later on, I think it must depend on your subfield. I'm at a Canadian university right now that is perhaps considered "more prestigious" than the university of Calgary, and I know that in my field it is notoriously hard for graduates to move to the US with their degrees. It is a SERIOUS problem for them.

I know someone who got a rejection letter a few weeks ago from SSHRC. Timing might depend on the result (reject, waitlist, yay!). Don't be too stressed.

Wow, a waitlist is really annoying (but better than an outright rejection). I hope you move up and get the money. Best of luck!

+1 for all he/she said.

I respectfully disagree. The admission fee is a sunk cost. Forget about it. There is no valid reason to make the admission committee work for nothing by evaluating the application of a candidate who is certain not to accept. When I go to a restaurant, I don't make a mess because I paid for the staff to clean my table after me. It's just common courtesy. I have withdrawn my application from a few schools where I knew I wouldn't go. The adcomm chairs always sounded very happy that I told them earlier. A few of them wrote back to tell me that I was highly ranked and would most probably have gotten in, but that they understand my decision and really appreciate that I told them as soon as possible.

Very informative as always. It's great to have you around Penelope.